Broken Hope’s Jeremy Wagner Addresses Band’s Return, New Album Details + Metallica’s Influence

Broken Hope are back in action and there may be no one more happy about it than guitarist Jeremy Wagner. After a solid run of five studio albums in the '90s, the death metal group suffered some difficult times as the 2000s arrived. But after putting aside past issues, the band has re-formed and is once again working on new music.

Loudwire spoke with Wagner on the Revolver Golden Gods black carpet and he shared the band's current plans for new music, as well as the respect he has for Metallica, who were one of the big honorees at the event. Read our interview below:

Welcome Jeremy...

Looks like I picked the right year to come, that's for sure. Metallica in a small club, that's just awesome.

How big of an influence were they for you?

Well, I'm gonna tell you Metallica's 'Ride the Lightning' actually changed my life. I started out on guitar, acoustic guitar, and I got into metal around 15 and when 'Ride the Lightning' came out, it blew me away. It had such a profound effect on me and to this day, it's still my favorite metal album. It inspired me to pick up and electric guitar. So Kirk Hammett, James Hetfield, Cliff Burton and Lars [Ulrich], those are my heroes to this day. They just hold a special place for me for what they did with my life. I wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for Metallica.

And Broken Hope, things are going well again, which is very cool.

Yeah, Broken Hope, we're back after a decade of tumultuous times. We had a singer who passed away and our old label [went away] and we've been on hiatus for 10 years, but to be back and have a new record deal with Century Media and a new album, 'Omen of Disease,' done and in the can -- it's coming out in September, it's the best feeling in the world.

We've got some surprises. Just today we were recording with Trevor [Strnad] from Black Dahlia Murder. He did backups on a song called 'Rendered Into Lard,' which was awesome. Man, I've got to tell you, everything about being back with this new album is a great feeling.

And I've got say, I've been doing press and this is my disclaimer, but every band says, 'This is our best album,' but I swear on my soul and I will back it up, this is Broken Hope's finest hour, 'Omen of Disease,' hands down.

Jeremy, you mentioned working with Trevor from Black Dahlia Murder. Take me into the session. How surreal was that?

What was awesome is over the years I've asked people if they wanted to do a guest thing or whatever and a lot of people politely declined or just couldn't do it. The only person we ever got on an album as James Murphy when he was in Testament did a lead on the 'Repulsive Conception' album but that was it.

But I went to see Black Dahlia Murder, who I love to death, opening for Dethklok over the winter and Trevor was like, 'Man, get me some song titles.' One was called 'Give Me the Bottom Half,' and when Trevor heard that he was like, 'I wanna do backups on that song just on the title alone.' Fast forward to now and him and I kept in touch and he did backups on 'Rendered Into Lard,' which is sure to be a family favorite [laughs] and it turned out great. I'm honored that he is such a Broken Hope fan that he wanted to do it and made the time. It sounds awesome and I can't wait for everyone to hear that.